Father pleads guilty to child porn charges - and avoids jail

A 53-YEAR-OLD man who admitted downloading indecent images of children for the second time has avoided being sent to jail.

A judge told Shaun Bradburn that while the latest offences warranted a prison sentence it would have only been for a short period.

Judge Andrew Menary, QC said: "You show a worrying lack of insight into your behaviour in your pre-sentence report and it seems to me society would be best protected by requiring you to undergo further rigorous supervision.”

He also pointed out that although Bradburn's wife has left him he is in employment and supporting her and their son, and that would end if he was sent to jail.

The judge sentenced Bradburn to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years and placed him under supervision for two years.

He ordered him to attend the stringent Northumbria Sex Offenders Programme and to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

He also imposed a life long Sexual Offences Prevention Order restricting his internet use.

Judge Menary said that although Bradburn had attended the sex offenders group work programme previously he had "drifted back into reprehensible behaviour of this sort".

Bradburn, now of The Avenue, Leigh, had pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to a total of 18 offences, including 16 charges of downloading indecent images of children, including three in the most serious categories, and involving children aged between five to 17 years old.

He also pleaded guilty to distributing two indecent images and possessing a total of 633 indecent photographs of children.

Peter Barr, prosecuting, said police raided Bradburn's home in January last year after it was found he had been in email contact with another man in Wiltshire over indecent child images.

His laptop and two storage devices were seized and contained 633 images, of which 431 were in the least serious category.

Chat logs showed he had had exchanges with other like-minded people about such material and on at least one occasion was involved in distributing a low level image, said Mr Barr.

Defence barrister Geoffrey Lowe, said that although most images were in the lowest category the defendant accepted such offences involved children being sexually exploited for the gratification of others.